The BJP said on Saturday that the people responsible for burning of schools in Kashmir were “digging their own graves”, as the arson in the centres of learning amounts to cutting roots of human civilisation. “Burning schools as part of ongoing protest in the Valley has startled human souls. It tantamount to digging own grave”, BJP state spokesman S S Bijral said in Jammu on Saturday.

He said that the masterminds of ongoing agitation in Kashmir have so far torched 36 schools across the Valley.”One is left aghast and wondering what the masterminds of Valley violence aim at by targeting centres of learning, that too of government, built through scarce public funds”, Bijral said. He said that the state was a blessed one where education institutional network was extensive.

The former chief minister Late Sheikh Mohammed Adbullah who was a teacher himself, spread out the network of schools and introduced a policy of establishing one school after every two kilometres. “These schools are because of strenuous effort of locals. Torching these is savage and most reprehensible.It amounts to cutting roots of human civilisation. The local people protected them against vandalism,” he said. Referring to Islamic scriptures, Bijral said that education was imperative for human progress.